Italy's Giulio Pellizzari powered away from a small group of riders in the final kilometres on the climb to the finish to win stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday, after riders had voted to neutralise the race if pro-Palestine protests caused more disruption.
After a group of protesters holding Palestinian flags stopped the Israel-Premier Tech team in the stage five team time trial, more stages - including stage 16 - ended before the scheduled finish due to protests.
Tuesday's stage 16 ended 8km (5 miles) before the scheduled finish at Castro de Herville after a large group of protesters, waving Palestinian flags, had completely blocked the road on the ascent to the line.
"The riders voted by a majority to stop in case of a new problem. They will then decide whether to continue or to end the event," CPA (a riders' union)vice president Pascal Chanteur told Reuters.
"We decided that if there is an incident that we would try to neutralise the race and then that would be it, because in the end racing to an undefined finish line is not really fair sport," Bahrain Victorious rider Jack Haig told reporters.
"Unfortunately we're being caught in the middle of something that maybe doesn't even really involve us. At the moment we are kind of just the pawns in a very large chess game that unfortunately is affecting us."
Spanish authorities said they would deploy an additional 1,500 police officers over the weekend, adding they sought to balance safety at the event with citizens' right to protest.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska expressed confidence in achieving such a balance.
"All I ask is that the exercise of this absolutely legitimate and, I would say, currently necessary right to protest does not disrupt security," he told reporters.
According to the ministry, it will be the largest public security deployment in Madrid since the NATO summit was held in the Spanish capital in 2022.
On Wednesday, the stage passsed without incident as Italy's Giulio Pellizzari powered away from a small group of riders in the final kilometres on the climb to the finish, with Jonas Vingegaard increasing his overall lead by two seconds.
Red Bull-BORA Hansgrohe rider Pellizzari attacked with 3.5km left of the 143.2km ride from O Barco de Valdeorras summit finish at the category one climb Alto de El Morredero and came in 16 seconds ahead of Britain's Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) with Australian Jai Hindley in third.
Vingegaard was next over the line, two seconds ahead of his closest general classification rival Joao Almeida, and the Dane holds a 50-second lead, with Pidcock almost two and a half minutes down on the red jersey in third.
Ireland Eddie Dunbar prduced a gutsy ride to finish 11th for Team Jayco Alula. Dunbar is now 21st in the general classification.
